Which company drove you crazy in 2012? Cast your vote for this year's Wooden Spoon Awards

Have you been left enraged by an energy firm? Maybe you’ve had to battle with a bungling bank? Or perhaps you are incensed by an incompetent insurer?

Now is your chance to hit back and shame the company that’s given you the WORST customer service this year.

Today we launch the fifth annual Money Mail Wooden Spoon Awards.

We want you to cast your vote for the organisation you think dishes up Britain’s shoddiest service.

Each week we’re deluged with hundreds of letters, emails and phone calls about appalling behaviour from companies and institutions that have driven you to despair — and left you out of pocket to boot.

You have told us of your frustration at dealing with badly-trained staff, botched bills and unreliable computer systems.

Worse, your loyal custom over many years has been treated as worthless, even though you’ve often spent thousands of pounds on a company’s products.

On top of this many of you voice anger, not just at pathetic service, but at the way your complaint was handled.

You’ve endured bungling staff who promise to return phone calls but never do; your letters frequently go unacknowledged; and you’ve wasted hours on the telephone trying to get put through to the right department.

In many cases, you’ve ended up arguing with staff in overseas call centres where it’s impossible for you to understand what you’re being told.

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Repeat offenders: the people who drove you mad in 2012

ENERGY SUPPLIERS which bodge meter readings, send payment demands bearing no relation to actual gas or electricity used and bamboozle customers with complex tariffs and pricing.

TAX OFFICIALS who cause massive confusion and stress by sending huge shock bills with little explanation and then kick out complaints without properly investigating.

MOBILE PHONE GIANTS who refuse to pay out for phone calls made by fraudsters, trap customers in complex contract deals and are too quick to send in debt collectors for missed payments.

BANKS and BUILDING SOCIETIES which routinely fail to perform even the most basic of tasks such s cash Isa transfers, lose customer details during current account switches and continue to stall over payouts for payment protection insurance.

INSURERS who will go to any length to avoid stumping up for legitimate claims.

BROADBAND AND HOME PHONE PROVIDERS who don’t fix technical faults but expect customers to keep on paying out.

TRAVEL FIRMS whose lamentable service wrecks your holiday and even when they do apologise send you a discount voucher — towards another trip with them.

Every company makes mistakes — but it’s how they put things right that matters.

There are many whose customer service works well, and they pop up only sporadically in our mailbag.

But for those who appear like
clockwork, correcting the simplest problem or carrying out the most
basic instructions seems impossible.This is simply unacceptable for
long- suffering customers.

How has last year’s winner fared?

TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding with Money Mail's Wooden Spoon Award

It’s not been a good year for 2011’s wooden spoon winner TalkTalk (company CEO Dido Harding is pictured above holding the award) — in fact, it’s been atrocious.

After scooping the award for rotten customer service in January — grabbing more than a quarter of all votes — the phone and internet giant said it would mend its ways.

It promised more resources for customer service and said it would fix more faults at the first attempt. However, the past 11 months suggest there is much work left to do.

We received hundreds of letters, calls and emails from angry readers, many of whom have been livid at the way they were treated.

If it wins for a third time in a row, tradition might suggest it can keep the wooden spoon trophy for good.

The Wooden Spoon challengers

Over the year, we’ve kept a watching brief on your complaints and drawn up a shortlist of eight of the worst offenders.

Here are our eight biggest service flops listed alphabetically.

DIRECT LINE

Insurers are supposed to give policyholders’ peace of mind — but Direct Line has too often added to their stress levels at a difficult time.

You wrote to us with details of how it frequently delayed payouts; entered into disputes over no claims discounts; and repeatedly failed to return calls when you needed help.

In one case, it even ignored a police report to avoid paying up on a collision claim.

It’s left us wondering whether the insurer has been too focused on its stockmarket flotation, and not enough on doing the right thing by its customers.

EDF ENERGY

This firm may be the country’s biggest electricity supplier, but the sheer sloppiness of its service is breathtaking.

Its failures include wrong meter readings taken by staff; contested direct debits; missing bills which trigger huge payment demands; long waits of up to an hour to telephone its call centre; and staff giving out duff information about the cheapest tariffs for older households.

To compound matters, an even bigger part of the problem, you say, is the effort needed to resolve these complaints.

HALIFAX

The bank, part of state-backed Lloyds Banking Group, has repeatedly floored readers with its sheer inability to properly handle simple requests. It has failed to switch home loans on time and lost details of insurance claims, as well as mislaying savings during cash Isa transfers and treating shabbily relatives who are trying to sort out power of attorney for a loved one.

HM REVENUE & CUSTOMS

We have been flooded with your letters of complaint about shock tax demands for hundreds — and often thousands — of pounds.

But the bills are just the start of the problem, because so many of you have said you feel that the way tax staff treat your legitimate queries is insulting and aggressive.

Pensioners, who are embarrassed about owing money to the State, claim they are regularly made to feel like criminals.

And even when you try to correct the Revenue’s mistakes you end up being baffled by tax codes which are sent over and over again.

Two years after promising to get it right, HMRC’s customer service is still horribly lacking.

SANTANDER

The biggest charge readers have levelled at the Spanish-owned bank is that of ‘incompetence’.Its alleged failures include having poorly-trained and rude staff; mislaying money during account transfers; losing customer account details; problems with the store cards it runs; promises to call back which are repeatedly broken; and an inability to carry out even the most simple customer requests.

Our recent exposure of £300,000 lost in old passbook accounts was finally revealed as being a problem with the way staff handled queries.

This is the fifth year running Santander has been on our wooden spoon shortlist — and its excuses are starting to become very tiring.

TALKTALK

The wooden spoon winner from 2011 and 2010 is still slipping up badly.

Angry customers of the phone and broadband provider have sent a deluge of complaints about disputes over final bills after they have switched to rivals.

The company still seems so focused on getting new customers it can’t concentrate on looking after the ones it has got already.

Others have told of broadband speeds which are way below what was promised, failures sorting out technical issues and of debt- collectors who are sent in to chase phantom bills.

THOMSON

Many of you have told us how you need another holiday after a break away booked with travel operator Thomson.

Trips have been ruined by hotels which look lovely in glossy pictures but turn out to be shabby wrecks.

You’ve had once-in-a-lifetime cruises wrecked by last-minute changes to the ship and destinations — often leaving travellers footing extra costs.

Its refusal to refund flights when it has changed departure times, and a failure by reps to help sort problems on the ground, have also been repeated gripes.

Your biggest complaint has been disputed payments — usually run up because of confusing tariffs or roaming charges overseas. Some have also been hit with demands long after a contract has expired.

We have reported how it refused to pay out £1,707 to a man mugged in broad daylight because he failed to report his phone stolen in time, a customer mis-sold spare Sim cards who was denied a refund, and another who wasn’t given help when he asked for assistance reading online bills.

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE

You can also vote for a second award, The People’s Choice. This lets you vote for companies not on our shortlist with whom you have had a particularly bad experience.